billvelek wrote:Whether this is another issue or not, I'm going to mention it. When the pop-up window asking for a registration key appeared, as soon as I would enter any character in either my name or email line, the registration button would dim, leaving 'cancel' and whatever the other one was (request new key???) as the only choices. Anyway, it seemed awkward and appeared to be unfunctional the first couple of times I tried it with the old registration key I found on my download page.

I'm having that same problem again, which is preventing me from opening BTP. Am I doing something wrong?

Here is my situation: When I came back from my vacation, I managed to get BTP to run successfully on my desktop again; I've had a lot of things going on for the past several days (I'm a new grand dad again), so I haven't had a chance to do much with it. I just now tried to open it and the 'Registration Window' popped up. Unlike the complaints of others, this has never been a problem for me except what I've quoted above; for nearly the past two years, I've just clicked on the program and it's opened without ever asking me for a new key (if it ever has, it couldn't possibly be more than once or twice -- so infrequently that I can't even remember it). Anyway, it's doing it now, and the probem is the same as what I've quoted above; i.e., as soon as I try to enter any information into the panel -- either my 'Name', 'Email', or 'License Key' (using both the edit button or directly typing the key), then the "Register" button at the bottom immediately dims (becomes inactive) leaving only 'Exit' or 'Purchase' as my only options. When I select purchase, it opens your website on Internet Explorer, and 'Exit' does exactly that. So I appear to have no way to complete the registration process -- not to mention the fact that I'm puzzled why I would need to do that after already successfully registering in just the past week.

Because of the trouble I've had in the past with BTP becoming inoperable and then impossible to remove and reload, you can understand why I'm not going to touch a thing until I hear back from you. I am speaking now about the version 1.5. I haven't tried reloading version 1.0.29 because I'm afraid that will mess up version 1.5.

Thanks.

Bill Velek

Last edited by billvelek on Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:40 am, edited 2 times in total.

If you have BTP installed on two computers, the license key for both computers must be the same. When a new license key is requested, the old license key is deactivated. Any installations using the old license key will ask for the new license key when run. To unlock BTP on the desktop, please enter your most recent license key for version 1.5 and you should be all set.

As I explained in my last post, as soon as I enter ANYTHING into ANY of the fields in the pop-up window -- Name, Email, or Key -- the 'Register' button at the bottom becomes dim (inactive), so there is no other choices but to either 'Exit' or 'Purchase'.

Now, I just opened my gmail account where I have the license key that I used to install BTP on my second computer (my wife's laptop) while I was on vacation. It is the exact same key number that is displayed on my downloads page -- which is what I have been attempting to use.

I have my wife's laptop sitting next to me right now, and I was just able to open BTP 15 which I had installed while on vacation. I had thought that I had already opened my desktop after coming home, but perhaps not; I've had so much going on since then that my memory might be clouded. (By the way, my daugher had an emergency c-section yesterday, so now I have another grandson, and they both are doing fine.)

In any event, I went to my gmail account where I had used the key to install to my wife's lap top, ... copied it to my clipboard, ... and then used the edit key on your popup to insert it into the 'License Key' field. However, once again, the 'Register' button at the bottom dims (deactivates). I even tried downloading ver.15 all over again to my desktop and re-installing it, thinking that maybe that has something to do with it, but I have the same problem -- after "reinstalling" the software and being queried for a key, the 'Register' button still dims.

If there is something that I'm doing wrong, I can't figure it out, and I'm beginning to see now why some other users have complained about this registration key scheme. And I'm wondering what happens if ... sometime in the future ... you and Lathe abandon this project, or get killed in a car accident together, or whatever ... how I'm going to be able to continue to use software that I've paid for and have invested a HUGE amount of time with.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I've NEVER had to worry about any registration issues for any other software that I've ever purchased. I'm still using software that I've bought ten years ago, but I have concerns about whether I'll be able to say the same about BTP.

billvelek wrote:Now, I just opened my gmail account where I have the license key that I used to install BTP on my second computer (my wife's laptop) while I was on vacation. It is the exact same key number that is displayed on my downloads page -- which is what I have been attempting to use.

The license key has your email address embedded in it. You must use the email address that the license key was generated from. In your case, your current license keys are based on your gmail email address. Are you using your gmail address and the matching license key to unlock BTP?

As I've explained, the "Register" button at the bottom of the registration pop-up window dims (deactivates) as soon as I attempt to enter anything, so how can I enter my email address? Here are some screen shots to show what I mean: in the first one, you can see that as soon as I enter the first letter of my gmail address (which is billvelek@...), the "Register" button dims; in the second, I've used the 'edit' key to paste my key number that was sent via gmail and used to install on our laptop, and the same thing happened (dimmed)[note that I have deleted the last four characters from my key for the screen shot]; and in the last shot, as soon as I type the first character of my name, the button dims.

I hope that helps clarify my question. I can only select 'Exit' or 'Purchase' after entering anything. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Well, personally I didn't find it to be very intuitive; if I had, I would have figured it out way before going to all the trouble of making screen shots, uploading them to my website, and posting. Quite a bit of work for nothing. But maybe it's just me. I can't decide if the dimming of the "Register" button is helpful or just confusing to users. I know that I haven't seen it before on other software or else it would have occurred to me immediately since I've certainly been around the block more than a few times as far as computers and software go. Anyway, I just never expected the key to dim as soon as any data was entered; I'd suggest the addition of a fourth button -- "Help" -- to explain what is happening for the slower folks like me, and that way all of the little details like using the same email addy for multiple computer installations, etc., can be explained. I think that most people want to help themselves with their own problems rather than wait for replies that might takes hours or even days.

I remember some software having the Register button dimmed until all fields are input correctly, but like you I don't think I've ever run into one like this that dims as soon as you type something. You're right -- it's not very intuitive and it certainly is confusing.

billvelek wrote:I can't decide if the dimming of the "Register" button is helpful or just confusing to users. I know that I haven't seen it before on other software or else it would have occurred to me immediately since I've certainly been around the block more than a few times as far as computers and software go.

Actually it's fairly common on the mac platform. I think you're a pc user, so that may explain the difference. I assume the reason is because the beertools staff doesn't want you to be able to submit a registration request without providing all of the necessary information. The alternative would be to have a separate script check for the information and then tell you you haven't provided everything. A matter of preference I guess.

Edit: Oh, I missed the part where it wasn't dimmed until you entered the first bit of data. That's what I get for skimming the thread!